“With the successful raids over the last week, the Office of Reason has captured many high-priority targets accused of crimes ranging from spreading harmful misinformation about mother and father, sympathizing with separatists, and even a few old separatists from the times of the troubles have been caught,” said Fella with a smile as she read the morning news highlights of the past week.
“Each of these cases has been swiftly and permanently normalized so that order can return to the sector once again,” said Kommy with a stern look at the floating drone camera, making the viewers feel a deep sense of righteousness.
“That’s right! But there is still a long way to go until such a thing happens…”
Arron was watching the news in a small restaurant booth with no connections to any of the yakuza families as he waited for Kix to meet him with new orders from AS.
He was not happy constantly having to do this sort of stuff out in the open with the family constantly watching him. It only increased the likelihood that he would be caught and then nothing good would happen after that.
With a grunt and a huff as a greeting to Arron, Kix sat down next to him and silently opened the restaurant’s holographic menu and ordered a cheap drink before looking at Arron who raised his eyebrows questioningly.
The table’s privacy shields activated allowing them to talk a little more freely, but not to the point of carelessness as this was not a completely safe place.
“I don’t like it any more than you, I am being used as a mule for A.S. and I’m in just as much danger as you are if not more when you consider my family connections.”
“And the new task I’m supposed to do is…?” asked Arron.
“So nothing can leak A.S. decided to do a face-to-face call using me as the middle man,” said Kix as he tapped on a menu of a small metallic disc that was placed on the table.
Arron could see the table’s holo-menu flicker for several seconds before regaining its solid state.
Seeing that everything was set he accessed his contact list and began a call.
“What took you so long?” asked AS.
“You didn’t give me any credits, so I had to walk here,” said Kix.
“Stop giving excuses. Anyway, Arron, nice work. With the information you sent me in your reports, I was able to get a nice promotion. You might not know this, but it is hell to try and climb the ranks as an agent of the Office of Reason.”
Hearing this made Arron grow a bit agitated as all A.S. was doing, was reading the reports while Arron risked his life and Kix also took on dangerous errands as well. The only one who was benefiting from all of this was A.S.
“And what about us?” asked Arron.
“Don’t worry! I already told you I would have the main office pay back all money you spend when the mission is over,” said AS waving his hand dismissively.
“…” Both Arron and Kix looked at each other with knowing looks. It really did appear that the Office of Reason had no intention to reward or pay them for any dangerous work they were currently doing.
“I’ll keep this short as my time is too important to be chatting with you for more time than is necessary. With the successful capture of so many small fish, the higher-ups want to take someone big down to help kick-start what they have planned.”
“… and what do they have planned?” asked Arron.
“That’s for me to know and for you to keep your mouth shut and just do as you are told. Your target is Krok who is also from the Ryu family you are currently part of. He has been supplying weapons to several groups that pop up to cause problems for Mother and Father. Some of the weapons have ended up in the hands of separatists. Since he is openly flaunting the ban on illegal weapons Mother and Father want him taken down. But whenever they try to move he always manages to escape.”
“I’ve never heard of him before. Are you sure he is in the same family as me?” asked Arron.
“That’s because he is the chief of the outer branch.”
This was the first time Arron heard of the family having an outer branch. “Then how am I supposed to meet with him? I have never heard of him before nor did I know anything about an outer branch.”
“I don’t care how you do it, but you will gather the information we need or you will be deemed as helping the separatists. As for where you can find him. That’s easy, Kix can give you a list of the buildings he runs. But since we already know all of this there is little chance you could meet him randomly at any of them. If that were the case I would not be talking to you right now. Enough questions, I have talked long enough with you. You have your new task so you better gather the needed information so that we can capture him.”
With that, the call ended.
Kix quickly downed the rest of his drink and traded a few words of encouragement to Arron before leaving.
Arron had no clue how he is supposed to meet or gather information on Krok since he is stuck under Ox’s watchful eyes.
***
“With all that has been happening recently, we have been unable to keep in touch with everyone that is part of the family. Because of this, we will be meeting with several important people today to trade news and information so that everyone is up to date on everything. You are only coming along with me since you may have to do this in the future as well and you’ll need the experience. Just stay quiet and watch from the side,” said Ox.
The two were using a flying armored car to travel to someplace that Arron had never been to before. It was supposed to be at the farthest reach of the family’s territory where the conflict with other families and gangs was constantly erupting.
Arron was only half listening to Ox as he was trying to figure out how to worm his way into the outer branch so that he could complete the mission he was given.
When the flying armored car silently landed on a spacious landing pad on top of a tall building, Arron absentmindedly got out along with Ox and walked through to the opened rooftop doors into a large comfortable waiting room that had many plush armchairs and a thick red carpet that your feet sank into.
When he looked up from his musings, he stopped in his tracks as he saw a large holographic painting covering the wall in front of him. It was a lively picture of several dozen colorful underwater fish swimming around on the wall. It all looked so life-like as if it was a pool inside the wall. It really was such a cool-looking painting.
On both of the side walls, there were also two other lifelike holographic paintings.
He walked over to the left wall to get a better look at the painting which was of various farm animals that were moving around and peacefully eating grass, grain, or bugs.
When his feet took him to the right wall painting he thought it could not be any more different from the other two. It was an emotional holographic painting of a fierce gunfight in what looked like the rubble of a destroyed city. Arron bent over and looked down at the short description underneath the painting to better read it.
[Created during the tail end of the Troubles when the struggle between the different powers was at its Bloodiest.]
“Oh? An art connoisseur? Ox I am completely shocked! I did not know such a meathead like you hung out with such a cultured person,” said a voice coming from the open doors of a secure Mag-shoot that had just opened.
“Krok, your insults are as bad as ever. When will you get rid of such childish talk?” said Ox.
Arron half jumped and turned around to stare at the newcomer when he heard his name come out of Ox’s mouth.
He silently sighed when he saw it truly was Krok the target that he was now in charge of gathering information on. His worry was slightly washed away as he focused on Krok and began inspecting him for every detail he could find.
“Who is the greenhorn?” asked Krok looking at Arron who was now staring at him silently. Several other people exited the Mag-shoot behind Krok.
“A new probationary member I am in charge of. You can just ignore his quirks as he is a country bumpkin. It’s a pain trying to explain everything to him,” said Ox.
“Oh? Well, you were the last person we were waiting for. Before we talk business I offered to show everyone a good time to help us all relax from the stress we have been under lately. Are you interested in joining us?”
“That’s fine with me but the old man wants everything set in order in the next few days. We can not waste too much time.”
“No need to worry. You can join us or stay here and wait. Of course, your sidekick is also welcome to come along.”
“Alright, Let’s go Krok.”
Arron had no objections to this turn of events as this was a perfect situation for him to be in. He silently followed the group of chiefs into a waiting armored black flying limo.
When everyone had sat down, the armored limo took off and began flying to an unknown destination.
